# Anyone else looking forward to Dallas on TNT?
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anyone-else-looking-forward-to-dallas-on-tnt/624312
**Category:** Cafe Society
**Created:** [June 6, 2012, 8:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anyone-else-looking-forward-to-dallas-on-tnt/624312 "2012-06-06T20:49:57Z")
**Posts on this page:** 20
**Page:** 2
### Author:  [@Czarcasm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Czarcasm)
#### Post date: [June 14, 2012, 2:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anyone-else-looking-forward-to-dallas-on-tnt/624312/21 "2012-06-14T14:15:30Z")
It had deception, gunshots, double and triple crosses, a wedding, bad guys who turned out to be good guys(and vice-versa), a long-ago mystery to be solved, break-ins…and J.R. Ewing going from 0 to 60 in 3.8 seconds. Loved it.
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### Author:  [@jayjay](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jayjay)
#### Post date: [June 14, 2012, 2:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anyone-else-looking-forward-to-dallas-on-tnt/624312/22 "2012-06-14T14:35:58Z")
> [@terentii](#):
>
> Uhm … wouldn’t that make them uncle and niece? 😕
Yeah, I caught the error too late to edit. :smack:
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### Author:  [@ralph124c](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ralph124c)
#### Post date: [June 14, 2012, 2:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anyone-else-looking-forward-to-dallas-on-tnt/624312/23 "2012-06-14T14:59:32Z")
First, Texas oil production is way down-maybe JR has to mortgage Southfork?
I can see JR getting involved in a T Boon Pickens-style financial scam (windmills maybe)?
Or maybe running the ranch with illegal alien labor.
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### Author:  [@Czarcasm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Czarcasm)
#### Post date: [June 14, 2012, 3:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anyone-else-looking-forward-to-dallas-on-tnt/624312/24 "2012-06-14T15:07:35Z")
> [@ralph124c](#):
>
> First, Texas oil production is way down-maybe JR has to mortgage Southfork?
> I can see JR getting involved in a T Boon Pickens-style financial scam (windmills maybe)?
> Or maybe running the ranch with illegal alien labor.
I’d tell you…but then I’d have to blackmail you, defraud you out of everything you own, sleep with your wife and/or daughter, and frame you for murder.
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### Author:  [@notfrommensa](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/notfrommensa)
#### Post date: [June 14, 2012, 3:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anyone-else-looking-forward-to-dallas-on-tnt/624312/25 "2012-06-14T15:38:37Z")
I did have a hard time believing that the J.R’s spawn could not but his hands on a $100,000 at a moments notice.
In these days, 100 grand is not all that much.
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### Author:  [@DMark](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DMark)
#### Post date: [June 14, 2012, 3:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anyone-else-looking-forward-to-dallas-on-tnt/624312/26 "2012-06-14T15:41:31Z")
Well, as someone who used to watch the old Dallas series, it was actually pretty good at replicating it!
I was surprised at how they did indeed just jump back into the old characters, but made the new characters fit in nicely. The plots are of course over-the-top, and the characters are of course larger-than-life, and money is everywhere, and nice cars, and sex…yeah, they just re-booted the old series as if it were yesterday.
I will watch a few more - still kind of a novelty to step back in time - but not sure how long I will continue watching. Then again, I never planned to watch the first series in its entirety either.
So, my guess is the old Dallas fans are probably OK with this version - we’ll see if there are any new Dallas fans to keep the series running.
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### Author:  [@joebuck20](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/joebuck20)
#### Post date: [June 14, 2012, 4:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anyone-else-looking-forward-to-dallas-on-tnt/624312/27 "2012-06-14T16:02:53Z")
Watched it last night. Wow, Charlene Tilton really let herself go, didn’t she?
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### Author:  [@dougie\_monty](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dougie_monty)
#### Post date: [June 15, 2012, 7:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anyone-else-looking-forward-to-dallas-on-tnt/624312/28 "2012-06-15T07:44:07Z")
_I_ wouldn’t watch it. No skin off my nose.
Hagman once appeared on a cover of _TV Guide,_ in a portrait painted with a halo over his head. Hey, if you’re going to represent him as an “angel of light” (2 Corinthians 11:14), don’t forget the blood dripping from his hands. Apologies to Jack Chick; none to Hagman.) :mad:
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### Author:  [@Lips\_Obsession](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lips_Obsession)
#### Post date: [June 15, 2012, 12:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anyone-else-looking-forward-to-dallas-on-tnt/624312/29 "2012-06-15T12:25:57Z")
Well, it did pretty good in the ratings - 6.9 million viewers and #1 scripted series premiere on cable this year.
[http://tvbythenumbers.zap2it.com/2012/06/14/tnts-dallas-rides-tall-with-6-9-million-viewers-ranking-as-the-yearss-number-1-scripted-cable-premiere/138150/](http://tvbythenumbers.zap2it.com/2012/06/14/tnts-dallas-rides-tall-with-6-9-million-viewers-ranking-as-the-yearss-number-1-scripted-cable-premiere/138150/)
I liked it - as others have said it felt very much like the old series.
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### Author:  [@joebuck20](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/joebuck20)
#### Post date: [June 15, 2012, 1:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anyone-else-looking-forward-to-dallas-on-tnt/624312/30 "2012-06-15T13:27:30Z")
Not great television, but it was thoroughly entertaining and left me wanting me more. Plan on tuning in again next week.
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### Author:  [@terentii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/terentii)
#### Post date: [June 15, 2012, 3:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anyone-else-looking-forward-to-dallas-on-tnt/624312/31 "2012-06-15T15:47:58Z")
> [@Lips\_Obsession](#):
>
> I liked it - as others have said it felt very much like the old series.
Did they mention anything about John Ross being Sue Ellen and Cliff Barnes’s love child? :dubious:
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### Author:  [@Leaper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Leaper)
#### Post date: [June 15, 2012, 4:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anyone-else-looking-forward-to-dallas-on-tnt/624312/32 "2012-06-15T16:30:28Z")
I imagine that’s something you save for later - spring it for maximum surprise for those who didn’t watch the old series, and maximum suspense for those who did.
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### Author:  [@joebuck20](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/joebuck20)
#### Post date: [June 15, 2012, 5:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anyone-else-looking-forward-to-dallas-on-tnt/624312/33 "2012-06-15T17:05:41Z")
> [@terentii](#):
>
> Did they mention anything about John Ross being Sue Ellen and Cliff Barnes’s love child? :dubious:
He’s JR’s son. I believe they took a blood test in the original series, not long after he was born (this would have been before DNA testing).
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### Author:  [@D-bear](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/D-bear)
#### Post date: [June 15, 2012, 5:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anyone-else-looking-forward-to-dallas-on-tnt/624312/34 "2012-06-15T17:37:24Z")
> [@joebuck20](#):
>
> He’s JR’s son. I believe they took a blood test in the original series, not long after he was born (this would have been before DNA testing).
Yeah, I seem to remember that it was supposed that he was the bastard child of Cliff and Sue Ellen and JR rejected him only to later find out that he really was JR’s spawn.
I don’t think if it was otherwise that JR would keep a picture of John Ross as a kiddo in footie PJ’s next to him in Shady Pines and no other photos in sight…
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### Author:  [@jayjay](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jayjay)
#### Post date: [June 15, 2012, 6:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anyone-else-looking-forward-to-dallas-on-tnt/624312/35 "2012-06-15T18:39:04Z")
Wasn’t Christopher actually JR and Kristin’s son? I seem to remember Bobby altering his birth certificate after the adoption to cover that up.
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### Author:  [@Rhiannon8404](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rhiannon8404)
#### Post date: [June 15, 2012, 6:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anyone-else-looking-forward-to-dallas-on-tnt/624312/36 "2012-06-15T18:44:15Z")
I thought it was fun! No, not award winning television, but definitely entertaining. We’ll we watching next week.
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### Author:  [@boytyperanma](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/boytyperanma)
#### Post date: [June 15, 2012, 6:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anyone-else-looking-forward-to-dallas-on-tnt/624312/37 "2012-06-15T18:48:55Z")
Will this series have any value to those of us that never watched the original? Or is the nostalgic value the only thing keeping it above water so far?
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### Author:  [@terentii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/terentii)
#### Post date: [June 15, 2012, 7:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anyone-else-looking-forward-to-dallas-on-tnt/624312/38 "2012-06-15T19:47:02Z")
> [@jayjay](#):
>
> Wasn’t Christopher actually JR and Kristin’s son? I seem to remember Bobby altering his birth certificate after the adoption to cover that up.
That’s what everybody thought, and at one point JR was blackmailing Bobby by threatening to tell everyone who his “real” daddy was.
It turned out that Kristen miscarried the baby she was carrying when JR and Sue Ellen packed her off to California (remember, she was the one who shot JR). Then she got pregnant again by her sleazy boyfriend and lied when it came time to fill in that child’s birth certificate. Instead of the real father’s name, she put down JR’s, and that was the birth certificate Bobby altered (he changed the father’s name to “Unknown”).
Still with me so far? 😉
So, when the boyfriend came back to Dallas with the baby (Kristen had already been killed in a car crash or something, I think), he was in fact turning over his own son to Bobby.
This dragged on until the end of the season, when Bobby managed to track down proof of the miscarriage. Then everything fell into place. Bobby got home just in time to keep JR from telling the family that he was really Christopher’s daddy (in other words, he punched JR’s lights out).
I saw this, what, thirty years ago? And I still remember the details. Never underestimate the Power of the Soap… :eek:
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### Author:  [@Rhiannon8404](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rhiannon8404)
#### Post date: [June 15, 2012, 7:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anyone-else-looking-forward-to-dallas-on-tnt/624312/39 "2012-06-15T19:51:29Z")
> [@boytyperanma](#):
>
> Will this series have any value to those of us that never watched the original? Or is the nostalgic value the only thing keeping it above water so far?
It’s a nighttime soap opera. I think people who enjoy serial dramas will enjoy it even if they haven’t seen the original. The pilot episodes gave enough back story. I didn’t really watch the orginal show, but my folks did and I followed a long with the storylines a bit until the last five years or so.
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### Author:  [@terentii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/terentii)
#### Post date: [June 15, 2012, 7:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anyone-else-looking-forward-to-dallas-on-tnt/624312/40 "2012-06-15T19:57:43Z")
To elucidate a bit farther:
- Kristen lied because she was still getting hush money from JR and wanted to keep stringing him along. Revealing she was carrying his child is what kept her out of prison, since neither JR nor Sue Ellen wanted a scandal.
- No, apparently no one ever twigged to the timing of the two pregnancies, and that Christopher was born later than he should have been (unless he was premature, but I don’t recall that he was).
- Why did the sleazy boyfriend (who looked like he’d just walked off the set of a cheap porn flick) bring Christopher back to Dallas and turn him over to Bobby? M-O-N-E-Y! In other words, he sold his own son into slavery (which is how the courts would view it).
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